Our ultimate $1 million Home Run Derby field

In case you haven’t heard: The stakes of MLB’s annual Home Run Derby just got raised with a $1 million bonus going to the champion, starting this year. With big bucks now on the line, you can expect some big names to come out to compete on July 8 in Cleveland, so we asked our writers to draft one player they would want with all the marbles at stake, make the case for their guy and let everyone know why their pick was better than the one directly before them.

Why he’s my pick: Trout is the best at just about everything, so if he decided he wanted to win the Home Run Derby, he would win it. Might not hit the longest homers, but he’d just keep putting the same swing on the ball all through the competition. He would not tire out.

Why he’s my pick: Please, I don’t have to defend Giancarlo Stanton. We’ve all seen him dominate the Home Run Derby in the past and nobody hits more awe-inspiring monster blasts than